Loco Views

Justin and I have officially been married for 3 years now – roughly 1095 days – 26,297 hours.

Man how quickly time flies and the fun never seems to stop.

Our tradition of getting out somewhere extraordinary to celebrate hasn’t seemed to stop either – Each year we choose some glorious location to prance about and capture our happiness together.

This year we chose to trek 30km up and back to Locomotive Mountain – Near Goldbridge BC.

A short hike through the trees and into a meadow, brought us above the crystal clear “Semaphore Lakes”

With all the hustle bustle of the Sea to Sky area, it was refreshing to go explore a quiet, virtually untouched spot.

The refreshing scent of luscious wetland is still lingering in my mind. And the sweet sound of the glacier water slowly trickling down and into a glimmering, green pool.

Once passing the delicate meadows we began our rocky ascent towards Locomotive. The boulder field cradling the basin below the ridge was easy to maneuver through and the views were tremendous to boot.

As we continued to trek up we began to feel that familiar sensation of being so small. Completely surrounded by this big, jagged world.

The route up to the ridge was “loco” to say the least. I can’t recall a time where I have said the word “Cairn” so many times in my life. (Wikipedia describes a cairn as a “man made pile of stones, often in a conical form” – used to mark a place someone has travelled or a route towards a final destination).

Using our maps and GPS we managed to skirt around and land atop the ridge – Not without a bit of marking and being sure to remember how we got there.

After about 3.5 hours (from the parking lot) we reached the summit. A glorious 360 degree view of mountains and glaciers.

“Thousands of tired, nerve-shaken, over-civilized people are beginning to find out going to the mountains is going home; that wilderness is a necessity…” (John Muir)

We were incredibly proud of our dog, Doc, as he sat happily on the summit. Doc has been a mountain dog from puppyhood but he never ceases to amaze us with the type of terrain he can monkey around.

If you get a chance to adventure out this way, I seriously recommend it. A glorious place to summit a scramble or simply camp around the lakes.